Lawyers Win Reprieve for Boots the Cat, Ordered Euthanized in Owner's Will

Boots the cat will be able to live out the remainder of her life at a no-kill shelter called Cats are Purrsons Too, thanks to lawyers for a bank appointed to manage the estate of the cat’s owner.

The 1988 will of Boots’ owner, Georgia Lee Dvorak, specified that any cats she owned should be euthanized “in a painless, peaceful manner,” the Chicago Tribune reports. Trust officers at Fifth Third Bank were reluctant to carry out the directive after Dvorak died on Christmas Eve and left most of her $1.4 million estate to animal charities. Dvorak had no surviving relatives.

A Cook County probate judge agreed to the reprieve on Monday. She ruled after lawyers cited the charity bequest and court precedent invalidating similar directives, the story says. An affidavit from Dvorak’s neighbors said she became depressed after a different cat died, but her mood brightened after she took in the stray cat she called Boots.